15th December National Cupcake Day

It is Cupcake Day in America on the 15th December. In Australia, Cupcake Day is on the third Monday in August and it is a fundraiser for the RSPCA.

Whenever you decide to celebrate it, it is a day to make cupcakes! Kids love cooking things that they can eat.

Use a book such as:

There are other picture story books about cupcakes and some of them even include a recipe. Go to the library and look for:

24th January Peanut Butter Day

It's Peanut Butter Day. Peanut butter isn't as popular now as it was when I was a child and every child had a peanut butter or vegemite sandwich for lunch. In fact at the school I teach at you cannot have a peanut butter sandwich for lunch as we have so many children who are allergic to peanut products. So today you may not be able to eat peanut butter, but you can read and enjoy this book, Peanut Butter and Cupcake! by Terry Border. Here Peanut Butter goes in search of a friend...


"But sometimes friends are hard to come by, especially when Hamburger has to walk his (hot) dogs, Cupcake is too busy building castles in her sprinkle box, and Egg laughs so hard he starts to crack up! Does Peanut Butter have a soulmate? Young readers will know the answer long before Peanut Butter does and laugh along with each mismatched pairing.
In a story that pairs silliness with poignancy, and friendship with anthropomorphic food, Terry Border, the photography mastermind behind the Bent Objects project, makes a triumphant entrance into the children's book world. Complete with a rhyming refrain, this is sure to be a favorite family read-aloud--and laugh-aloud."

15th August Cupcake Day

I know I wrote about Cupcake Day last year, but cupcakes are extremely popular at the moment in books for young readers and my young readers are keen to borrow cook books and anything pink or about cupcakes, so I have some extra titles to write about.

1. There is a new series of beginning chapter books by Yvette Poshoglian about Ella and Olivia and one of them Cupcake Catastrophe has the sisters cooking cupcakes.

2. Camilla the Cupcake Fairy by Tim Bugbird and Lara Ede has everything covered for the pink-fairy-cupcake-loving little girls! There's even a set of spin-off readers and other picture books with a food theme. See Daisy the Doughnut Fairy and Lola the Lollipop Fairy.

3. Tina Cocolina Queen of the Cupcakes by Pablo Cartaya also does but with a bit more 'meat' in the story and recipes.

15th August RSPCA Cupcake Day

Today is Cupcake Day, a fundraiser for the RSPCA, a wonderful Australian organisation that looks after the welfare of animals. It is a good excuse to get out some cooking books, be they recipe books such as the Women's Weekly Cupcakes and Fairycakes, books that combine recipes and story or stories that involve cake making.

In my library we have two new books that combine story and recipes:

1. My Grandma's Kitchen by Louise Fulton Keats. This book is authored by the legendary Australian cook, Margaret Fulton's granddaughter. It is a beautiful book, with exquisite endpapers, 'scrapbook-like' artwork and recipes from her grandma's kitchen. It would be the perfect gift for any grandchild or grandma.

2. The Fairies Cupcake Ball a book in the Flossie Crums series by Helen Nathan. Although I am not a fan of the artwork in this series, the idea is novel and young girls do seem to like them.

And just because they are about cupcakes:

1. Fancy Nancy and the Delectable Cupcakes by Jane O'Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser

2. Ruby's Cupcakes by Rosemary Wells

or making cakes:

1. It's My Birthday by Helen Oxenbury